There were summers when my sister and I would put on “concerts” for my parents. Picture two little girls strumming along to Tom T. Hall’s “Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine” on a Mickey Mouse record player, using badminton rackets as guitars — a ’70s precursor to karaoke!
Like I said, born and bred. When I heard Miley Cyrus was going to be the cover article in the Sunday, March 21, “Parade Magazine” I was impressed.
She may be just 17, and like all of us, has done some boneheaded things, but I’ve found her very talented and funny. I was looking forward to reading it.
Until I did.
In it, Miley says she’s steering clear of country music.
“It scares me, that’s why. It feels contrived on so many levels. Unless you’re wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and singing and whining about your girlfriend or boyfriend leaving you, it’s not going to sell. I think that’s why my dad finally got out of it. You have to wear those cowboy boots and be sweet as pie. It makes me nervous, the politics of it all.”
Maybe she has forgotten that her own father, Billy Ray Cyrus, who is (or was) a successful country artist, began his career wearing high top sneakers and a pretty fierce mullet. No Stetson in sight.
And I can’t remember the last time I saw Carrie Underwood wearing cowboy boots. Nope, she’s a stiletto girl.
BRC’s smash “Some Gave All” album was dedicated to the troops. There may have been a tearjerker in there, but as for “whining?” No.
Taylor Swift has made her career by being “sweet as pie” writing songs about heartbreak. Know why? Cause country music is about real life.
People break up, they make up, your dog runs away, you get fired from your job, and sometimes you drink too much because it hurts.
I know Miley is trying to shed her “Hannah Montana” image with her “Party in the USA” attitude. But ironically, in it, Miley sings, “It’s definitely not a Nashville party. Cause all I see are stilettos. Guess I never got the memo.”
Did you know Miley was born just outside Nashville and her godmother is Dolly Parton? Perhaps Miss Dolly might consider a memo to the misguided Miley, from her song “Dumb Blonde.”
“You flew too high up off the ground, It’s stormy weather and you had to come back down ... don’t think I’m dumb, cause this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool.”
Contact Nancy Wilson, a morning-radio personality at WHKO-FM (K99.1), by e-mail through the Web site at k99online.com.
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